El Capitan - Bluetooth repeatedly disconnects on Mac Mini

Well, it's buggy behavior. Occurs on latest Sierra deploy. SMC resets, multiple mice manufacturers, multiple machines experiencing the issue. Hopefully it's a correctable software issue and not a hardware flaw... Looks like this for me, btw, with Bluetooth rapidly toggling back and forth between "Connected" and "Not Connected":

This article explains the issue: Potential sources of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth interference - Apple Support

the BT disconnect problem is almost definitely wireless interference, just have to discover which devices. I wouldn't bother with all the other 'tricks' discussed earlier in the thread, I tried just about all of them and none worked.

The following steps let me reconnect without rebooting (which is at least a minor improvement):

1. Turn off WiFi
2. Turn off Bluetooth
3. Turn on Bluetooth
4. Wait for mouse to reconnect
5. Turn on WiFi

Still unsure if it's a software bug or hardware issue (interference?), but the above workaround works for me, albeit I have to do it multiple times per day... ugh.

For anyone else like me who still has to do this multiple times per day (on Sierra), it's particularly useful to enable the system menu bar icons in System Preferences for quick access to the wifi/bluetooth on/off switches (enable both "Show Wi-Fi status in menu bar" and "Show Bluetooth in menu bar").

Perhaps it may make sense to write a script to do the toggling automatically, since who knows if/whether Apple will issue a fix to this long-standing problem anytime soon.

Interesting follow-up... I think this may be a software issue (macOS) rather than a hardware issue with my MacBook pro.

When my bluetooth mouse disconnects, I seem to be able to consistently force a reconnect of the bluetooth mouse by simply using the trackpad to click on the WiFi menu bar icon (which causes the list of available networks drop-down menu to appear). Within about two seconds, the bluetooth mouse reconnects. Steps to reproduce:

1. Wait for mouse to disconnect
2. Use trackpad to click the WiFi menu bar icon (not the Bluetooth menu bar icon)
3. Bluetooth mouse should reconnect

During the disconnect, I watched the Console log and filtered on "blued" and saw hundreds of log entries with "***** Temporarily stopping all scans *****" and "EVENT: Disconnection Complete: Reason = 62" from the "blued" process racing by. The moment I clicked on the WiFi menu bar icon, the messages in Console cease, and the mouse reconnects. I suspect that one of the underlying networking libraries are shared in some way that they might be interfering with one another, and clicking on the WiFi icon in the menu bar resets some sort of state that is causing the problem.

Could someone else on this thread please try to verify whether this workaround also works for them? Thx.

I tried to use a Bluetooth mouse with my mid-2012 13" MacBook Pro, macOS 10.12.3, but it would always drop the pairing. I had tried both a M$ mouse and a Logitech mouse and neither one would stay paired. Finally I relented and bought an Apple Magic Mouse2. It has stayed paired for now four days so far. Somehow Bluetooth is different on Macs; I thought it was always the same.

I found continual disconnection is a problem with my 2011 13" MacBook Pro when using non-Apple mice. I bought a used Magic Mouse 2 on eBay and the disconnect problem went away. But that mouse has presented me with other problems particularly horizontal scrolling and the occasional lack of consistent sensitivity to my finger for scrolling. That latter problem was at least partly solved by installing the system preference MagicPrefs.

About 2 weeks after installing macOS Sierra 10.12.5 bluetooth devices continuously disconnected & reconnected as described in this thread. Tried oliverj's workaround and at first it did immediately reconnect when WiFi menu was engaged but dropped out soon after. This action was repeatable for awhile, but later achieved nothing, with the disconnect/connect toggling continuing. Also tried removing "Bluetooth PAN" but encountered the following error:

$ sudo networksetup -removenetworkservice "Bluetooth PAN"

Password: xxx

You cannot remove Bluetooth PAN because there aren't any other network services on Bluetooth PAN.

** Error: The parameters were not valid.

Has Apple had any inputs into this ongoing problem?

Well I talked at length to AppleCare without finding the problem so they booked me into the AppleShop. At the AppleShop the BlueTooth (BT) devices worked without a hitch. Apple gave me the option of reinstalling macOS (I have the latest iMac Sierra 10.12.5 already) but as it wasn't faulty in the AppleShop I took it home and tried it again. Immediately the BT devices starting continuously disconnecting/connecting, so I have wireless (2.4Ghz) interference at home. I have an iPad Air2 10.3.2 an iPad Pro 10.3.1 and an iPhone, so I turned off BT on all devices and bingo, no disconnects! I experimented a bit turning BT on the iPad Air2 connecting to the iMac and trying to AirDrop a file. The iPad2 connected via BT to the iMac but was unable to AirDrop and the iMac's BT devices again started disconnecting. The problem is repeatable (so hopefully fixable by Apple). Here's some of the events from the console:

IOBluetoothDevice::setProperties() -- calling mHCIController->CallCreateDeviceReporter() -- this = 0xe900

IOBluetoothHostController::CallCreateDeviceReporter -- calling enqueueAction() -- device = 0xe900

IOBluetoothHostController::CreateDeviceReporterAction -- device = = 0xe900

IOBluetoothHostController::CreateDeviceReporterAction -- calling CreateDeviceReporter() device = = 0xe900

IOBluetoothHostController::CreateDeviceReporter -- device = = 0xe900

Hopefully this will mean something to some macOS guru and we'll get a fix in IOS 10.3.3 and/or macOS Sierra 10.12.6

Weird thing is that there were many BT devices in the AppleShop so why didn't I have the same 2.4Ghz interference in that environment? I even had my iPad2 & iPhone there, but can't say for sure that BT was turned on. Anyway my BT devices have been connected solid for a couple of hours now, so hopefully this is the end of this saga.

BTW: Bluetooth PAN was able to be removed from System Paramaters>Network>Bluetooth PAN>-

Well the toggling connect/disconnect problem went away for several days, but has just resurfaced. There was a new BlueTooth device in the house but turning off that and doing another SMC reset didn't help. The problem was coincident with running the "FoxTel Go" app on the iMac (Sierra 10.12.5) and pushing the display to my second display (Dell). A second display was mentioned by someone in this post "http://tech128.com/bluetooth-not-available-mystery-macbook-pro-retina-15-inch-mi d-2015/#comment-2377", so I've tried restarting without the extra display but it didn't help. I wonder if "FoxTel Go" is mucking with BT as it wasn't even available after last boot and on iPad's AirDrop and AppleTV mirroring is disabled by the same app as Rupert (the mean *******) doesn't want any iPad users switching "FoxTelGo" (PayTV app) display to their large TV. Back to using USB devices!

Barry Hemphill said Reset Bluetooth. You may have misunderstood:

You do this as follows:

select the Bluetooth icon on the top menu bar while holding the Shift+Alt/option key,

then select "debug",

then select "reset the Bluetooth module".

Lex

Reset the SMC.

is this a known bug?

Not a "bug."

Barry

Sometimes (rare) interference causes a similar problem. Do you have a cordless phone near the computer?

You might also try resetting the PRAM.

Barry

Although there seems to be a correlation to your new OS X install, I have not read anything (not scientific analysis) about this sort of problem.

We have exhausted the "standard" troubleshooting steps. If you are near one, you might take it in to an Apple store for testing (free, repairs are not).

Barry